Yeah forget about Hamilton helping Bottas. Bottas is 22 points behind, he would need the win and an abnormally bad race by Vettel to do it. Unlikely. The race tomorrow will be decided at turn 1. Hamilton slowed down last year and Rosberg never even hinted at attacking him. It's pretty much impossible to overtake like cars here.If Bottas is holding up the field then Merc may interfere with team orders because they are not going to want to lose a race to Ferrari. So as long as Bottas has a good start and is quicker than the Ferraris I reckon it will be a win for him.

Hamilton can win tomorrow in a straight fight. Is it a one or two stopper? I hope Mercedes let them run different strategies.

Even if they run the same strategy, I would not rule out Hamilton overtaking Bottas on track. Bottas always struggles on the other tyre, like Nico used to in 2014. Especially when he has good qualifying pace.

Hamilton can win tomorrow in a straight fight. Is it a one or two stopper? I hope Mercedes let them run different strategies.

Even if they run the same strategy, I would not rule out Hamilton overtaking Bottas on track. Bottas always struggles on the other tyre, like Nico used to in 2014. Especially when he has good qualifying pace.

One stopper I think and yeah there is usually 1 stint Bottas struggles and with the newer PU in Lewis's hands I'd back him to get the job done with a pass or through the stops too.

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

Hamilton can win tomorrow in a straight fight. Is it a one or two stopper? I hope Mercedes let them run different strategies.

Even if they run the same strategy, I would not rule out Hamilton overtaking Bottas on track. Bottas always struggles on the other tyre, like Nico used to in 2014. Especially when he has good qualifying pace.

but if they are running p1(bottas) and p2(lewis) do you think lewis would still go for an overtake or just waste his "speedy gonzales" engine by holding station and enjoy the scenery.

Hamilton can win tomorrow in a straight fight. Is it a one or two stopper? I hope Mercedes let them run different strategies.

Even if they run the same strategy, I would not rule out Hamilton overtaking Bottas on track. Bottas always struggles on the other tyre, like Nico used to in 2014. Especially when he has good qualifying pace.

but if they are running p1(bottas) and p2(lewis) do you think lewis would still go for an overtake or just waste his "speedy gonzales" engine by holding station and enjoy the scenery.

If he's faster he'll go for it. I doubt he'll fancy a 2nd title winning season in a row where he fails to win the last 3 races.

I think you need to be about 0.7-1.0 second faster per lap to overtake in AD. Hamilton is going to be able to run more laps in the higher modes, he just needs to attack Bottas at a phase in which he in unable to match him for engine mode.

I fancy Hamilton to have a big attack either in the first 3 laps, immediately after the first stop or at the very end. The most likely scenario being after the first stop for me.

I think we need Bottas to lead with Hamilton P2 after the end of lap 1 for it to be an interesting race.

Wow...that's a depressing link (although thanks for sharing). I wont be watching F1 next year on USA tv so I wont be subjected to this miserable situation that all US viewers will have to deal with. A real shame for David and Steve. They were a good team. All they needed back was Bob Varsha.